31 August 2018: Seminar by Dr William Liu, AUT, "Is it possible to cure Internet addiction with the Internet?"

STEMTEC Seminar Series, 2018

Where: WT121 Note different room

When: Friday 31 August 2018, 12noon-1pm

Is it possible to cure Internet addiction with the Internet?

Dr William Liu, AUT

ABSTRACT

Significant technological advancements over the last two decades have led to enhanced accessibility to computing devices and the Internet. Our society is experiencing an ever- growing integration of the Internet into everyday lives, and this has transformed the way we obtain and exchange information, communicate and interact with one another as well as conduct business. However, the term ‘Internet addiction’ (IA) has emerged from problematic and excessive Internet usage which leads to the development of addictive cyber-behaviours, causing health and social problems. The most commonly used intervention treatments such as motivational interviewing, cognitive-behavioural therapy, and retreat or inpatient care mix a variety of psychotherapy theories to treat such addictive behaviour and try to address underlying psychosocial issues that are often coexistent with IA, but the efficacy of these approaches is not yet proved.

In this talk, I will present a recent journal paper*, entitled ‘Is it possible to cure Internet addiction with the Internet?’. It is co-worked with Farhaan, Ajit and my previous master student Seng, and just published in AI&Society. We have together envisioned an Internet- based IA Recovery Framework (IARF) which uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to closely observe, visualize and analyse patient’s Internet usage behaviour for possible staged intervention. The proposal to use smart Internet-based systems to control IA can be expected to be controversial. We intended to stimulate further discussion and research in IA recovery through Internet-based solutions.